We went downtown to McDonalds for breakfast. Came over to Mary and Johns room for coffee and doughnuts and said goodby to those traveling. David and Noah are going to Utah for hiking. Sue and Bruce are hanging out in California for a while. Laura and Bob are going to stay over at LAX, Bill and Barb are going to Death Valley, and Holly and Darryl are staying in Palm Springs. Around 11 we checked out and made our way across the desert. Our first stop was Desert Springs where hot water is pumped out of the ground for Spa resorts. We got some good maps and info then headed to 29 Palms. We had lunch in Yucca Valley before going to the Joshua Tree visitors center to watch an intro movie. We met Mary and John in the visitors center then went into the park together and drove to Keys View making many stops along the way. It was an enjoyable afternoon. The 29 Palms Thai place was closed on Monday so we went to Joshua Tree for Thai. It was an enjoyable meal with Mary and John celebrating our anniversary. John brought a bottle of champagne along which made the occasion more festive. It was a great night. Our Holiday Inn Express in 29 Palms is brand new and quite nice.

We went out early and photographed the sunrise on the mountains and palms which was beautiful. Went to McDonalds for breakfast before driving downtown for some sight seeing. Came back an hour or two later and toured the resort before meeting everyone in the lobby for breakfast. The family brunch was at 10 which was very nice. I had some french toast with bacon and fruit and a sweet roll. The coffee service was a little delayed but all went well anyway. This was our lunch for today. Did a peek at the pool and enjoyed the many many bikinis laying around. This was a girl watchers dream. Wow. At noon we headed over to the Tram. Joe called us from the Tram and said it was 54 degrees at the top. I brought my Hoodie but didn't need it since I was OK in the sun. I loaned it to Katy, Peters friend since she only had a skimpy sun dress on. Katy is a lovely girl, very smart and with a can do anything demeanor. Got home and cleaned up for the wedding which I thought was at 5:30 but was at 6:00. It was outdoor in their wedding garden. We enjoyed the ceremony and were quite surprised at how religious it was. The party after was great. We had rime rib from the carving station and a second plate of the turkey with cranberry sauce. I had too much wine. We did lots of dancing even though it wasn't a ballroom crowd. The rap music served at times for Foxtrot and Salsa. One of the bridesmaids came over to us and said we were amazing. We had a good time and helped close the place at midnight.

Left for the airport at 4:50 AM. Everything went smooth with the Park and Ride and our Airtran flight to Atlanta. I had a wonderful bulkhead seat. We landed in a thunderstorm in Atlanta, the terminal was closed for lightning endangering the ground crews so we had to wait on the plane on the tartmackl. Our connection to LAX was delayed an hour because of the thunderstorm. Arrived at LAX at 1:20 instead of 12:30. We got a very nice white Toyota Corolla. Driving I-10 ro Palm Springs was stop and go all the way, it took an extra hour. We finally got in at 5:30PM.
We met the family in Holly's room. She had a very nice suite poolside. We were back in Bldg 1 which was nice since it was adjacent to the lobby and convenient to everything. We took our car with the Guenthers to downtown where we parked on street. While at a light we came across Joe and Christa on the sidewalk. Libbie tried calling but they didn't answer their cell phone. Bill found a table at the Pub in town which was very nice and next to he sidewalk. I ordered a veggie portabello burger with greens instead of fries. Very very good. I had a Sam Adams beer with the meal. We paid for four meals which included Joe and Christa. Joe and Christa are staying in the Quality Inn which Joe got for his Quality points.

We had to pack during the day today to leave tomorrow and dance tonight. I updated the Bluebird website which didn't get uploaded a few days ago. We had soup and tomaot-cheese sandwich for dinner then went to ballroom at 7 PM. Erica helped us dance some waltz steps with right turns. To bed early for a 4 am wake up call.

Libbie had a full house today with Nancy and Jack helping her with Violet planting. I continued with the tax work. I'm not sure if it's looking good or bad for our wallets. I'll probably end up paying somebody something. I spent some time assembling the antenna and putting it in the attic. I need some U-bolts and a matching transformer as well as an RG-6 splice to complete the job. We took a look at dishwashers in HH Gregg and then visited the Credit Union to look into the checking account for the convention. Not much luck. Dinner tonight was panko crusted Catfish again with shiraz, peas and mushrooms.

I loaded up Turbo Tax today and started slogging my way through the taxes. My goal is completion before we leave for Palm Springs Saturday. I'm worried about how much we are going to have to pay. We left for ?Ballroom this afternoon at 3:15. Our lesson consisted of Foxtrot promenade and turns and then extensive turning in the waltz. The hardest part was the right turns. For dinner tonight we breaded the catfish with Panko crumbs and put some slap yo momma on the fish and served it with peas and shiraz. The other FM antenna came today while we were out at ballroom. I didn't mess with it today. We listened to Otello live from the Met tonight. I did a little work on pictures and posted our pansy garden to Facebook today.

After a small grocery run because we're leaving this Saturday, I worked outdoors. Got 4 more flagstones and 4 bags of pine bark mulch. Spread this stuff around and also fertilized the 3 new rose bushes from last year. For fertilizer I used the Ortho packets that came from the Pasadena rose parade post show. Finished the new fence post for the electric fence and transferred the electric wires to the post. The old post which was a landscape timber got tossed onto the brush pole. I learned a big lesson never to use landscape timbers as fence post. they don't last long in the ground. I finished up the software for the new flower timer but did not test it. Tax time is bearing down on us and we're leaving Saturday. I need to get serious about this stuff. I sent the last of the violet mobile movies to Andrea. Hopefully I'm done with this part. For dinner tonight I was going to make Panko crusted catfish but it was 6:30 and the fish needed to chill i buttermilk for 20 minutes and then bake for 30 minutes so instead Libbie made Briyani. We watched the DVR of Dancing with the Stars, first show of the new season. I didn't recognize any of the dances as ballroom.

This morning I worked some more on mounting all the components in the key case for the flower timer. I punched a hole in the case front and mounted a 20x4 LCD and made up a ribbon cable to attach to the PCB pins for the backpack. I also hooked up a ribbon cable for the TX and Rx to the Raspberry Pi. This is an involved project. I'm not sure I'm going to like 3 power supplies - 7 volts for the Boarduino, 5 volts for Raspberry Pi and 28 VAC for the solenoids.
Joe pointed out that the Palm Springs tram is available via coastal Visa points so I checked and bought 2 adult tram tickets. Good deal. They also have wax museum tickets available which I'll use once I figure out which day. I worked on the violetmobile and got 2 more routes done. Now I need othe Naples to Dolgeville route and I'm done.
Dinner was spaghetti then we listened to Traviata live from the Met. I got an eMail from Vicki that she'll be in town on April 18.

I did the violet mobile path from MO to OH and sent it to Andrea. She said not to do anymore since Joe Bruns says he can easily do this with his software. That's OK with me. I went outside and trimmed the bushes around the new antenna and rearranged the down lead. I left the surplus wire coiled under the house. I need to add a lightning suppressor and a splitter so that the TV can have an FM antenna. I did a little branch cleanup in the backyard. I noticed two boys playing in the woods in our backyard. I looked into fencing and also some private property signs. Back in the house I mounted more of the circuit boards onto the plywood board. Now I need to hook up the Raspberry Pi serial lines and the LCD/RTC. Libbie made another of her wonderful pizzas but this time she put some of the tomato pieces into it. Wow, good. We continued to practice our ballroom cha cha. This time we added a side turn to the cha cha that we learned from You Tube.

This morning I found a you tube video for the American cha cha which we were trying to do. The breakthrough came with the rock-step. By doing this our pattern came out correctly. We left for Francesca at the Met in HD at 11:30. I wasn't in the mood for this but it was an enjoyable afternoon. On the way home we stopped at Home Depot in Cary for #4 screws for the Flower Timer and then to BJ's for dishwasher soap and ribs. dinner was ribs with salad and mixed veggies. We had a bottle of Shiraz with dinner.

This was an outdoor morning. It's pretty cold outside. I repaired the garden house and hooked up the Miracle Grow sprayer. I don't like this thing. It seemed to be uneven in it's application. sometimes the water was clear, other times it was blue. I could get it to change by shaking the end of the hose nozzle or holding it upside down. Next I went up the ladder onto the roof with a broom and swept the pine needles off the skylights and up towards the chimney. Removed the old dish and lowered it via rope. I was hoping to put the FM antenna there but the standpipe is too close to the chimney so I'll mount it on the ground instead. Fired up the fence post driller and drilled a fence post hole for the azalea fencing in the back corner and then the whole reason for doing this, the mast hole. I cut the pipe to go into another cut pipe and put the other pipe into the ground and back-filled the hole. The mast fit into it perfectly. Now I need to trim the tree next to the mast. Dinner was leftover Farfalle with Kale and some leftover spinach before running over to dance lessons on Friday night. Mitzi taught us cha cha. We did quite well learning to move sideways in the cha cha. I'm happy about this. We stayed for a half hour at the party. I got to dance the swing for a little with Erica before we left at 8:30.

Joe turned me onto "Otel" where I was able to book a hotel room at the Riviera for $159 plus tax and fees. This is a significant savings. The bottom line was $184. I went over to the greenhouse and fetched the roll of plastic to line another plantroom shelf. The resin is not holding up for me. Perhaps the coating was too thin. Routed the cable from outside to the stereo and temporarily hooked up the FM antenna on a twenty foot pole. The FM reception is excellent. I will try to mount this on the roof or else on a pole in the side yard. Dinner was the Farfalle Kale with a glass of shiraz. We listened to Traviata live otnight. It was the season premiere. Domingo seems to slur his Italian words compared to other renditions we have heard over the years.

This was a busy day. Early in the morning Lib and I tried to practice dancing for our lesson but the phone kept interrupting. this was at 9 in the morning of all things. I helped Jack put together the portable drive case he bought for his laptop drive. I finished building the cable for the relay board and photographed it for documentation. Would love to test it with a program that steps through each of the relays. I made a trip to Home Depot for antenna cable and spent some time routing it under the house. The FM antenna arrived this afternoon via FedEx from Michigan. It looks pretty good. We planted the tomato and some Marigold seeds after lunch then we had to get ready for our ballroom lesson. I feel we did well today. We added the cha cha to our repertory. I wrote down some of the dance steps and also Roberts idea of a program for us. He is talking about over 100 lessons at something like $3,000. When we came home Libbie and I cooked a Farfalle, Kale and Italian Sausage meal. It was quite good. After dinner I booked a room for Joe and Christa at the Riviera. It was going to be $377 per night but I got it for $332 on a AAA rate. That's still pretty pricey but we'll be OK.

We had a nice violet club today. Libbie demonstrated how to plant violets the Bluebird Way. I had an opportunity to repot my Sinningias which were in pretty soppy soil. I ended up mixing perlite into potting soil to thin it out. I bought buns and chicken salad while Libbie made tuna salad for the meeting. Dinner tonight was the leftover sandwiches. We listened to the live broadcast of Franceswca Di Riemeni.

Joy and Jack came over to help Libbie. I cleaned up the driveway and garage for violet club tomorrow. Worked on scoping out the relay board cable build. Libbie bought some dresses today and I accompanied her to return one jacket top which was $50. We went out to La Cosina after the trip to the Cary Mall.

After the CBS morning show we went to the Farmers MArket for snapdragons and veggies. We saw a policeman on the Lake Wheeler Bridge with a radar device. wow, sneaky. There were no snaps at the Market. Next stop was Lowes then BJ's. I got bark and the snap dragons. Next stop was BJ's for bacon, cheese and tuns. After BJ's we checked out the Releve dance shop. It looks like this one will do Libbie for shoes with ankle straps.
It wass a beautiful and warm day. I started by putting the shade on the greenhouse. Next was spreading pine straw along the fence that Libbie raked up. Finally I finished the temporary fencing along the Mondo grass. I also worked on the mechanical details of the Flower Timer II. Libbie made her fabulous pizza once again for Sunday night dinner.

Nice day. I put together a design and started some software for the TG Flower Timer II which is going to irrigate the flower garden and greenhouse. I decided to use a Boarduino as the driver of the 8 relays. It will have the Adafruit RTC and LCD backpack but interface to the world through a Raspberry Pi. I hope to do the PI communications via the serial port. The opera started at 11 today but had some problems with the Soprano and French horns putting out bad notes. That's live opera I guess. Andrea informed me that the DVDs I sent her were the wrong movie files. She got Rob and Olive instead of Brenda movies. I booked the hotel and plane tickets for Austin but I still need to fill out the PDF file registration.
We went to Carolina Ballet in the evening. It was a hip hop ballet which I'm still not sure about. I liked the classic piece, Siegfried Idyl much better. It was beautiful and flowing. The program was short. We were out by 10 for an 8 oclock performance. We sat in Row D in the balcony. I liked the seats.

Went downstairs at 6:10 and started the colon prep round 2. This stuff has made me lethargic and nauseous. Awful, awful, awful. No food or drink this morning. Libbie's oatmeal sure smells good. We left at 10:36 for my 11 AM appointment on Blue Ridge road at Wake Endoscopy. They took me right away and I went in to undress, get hooked up to an IV and some electrocardiograms. I was super happy with my blood pressure which was significantly below 120/80. One time it was 111/62 while resting on the bed waiting for the doctor. The procedure went very well. I stayed sleeping throughout the procedure, unlike last time. When I woke Libbie was by my side. Unfortunately I had one polyp which didn't look bad but is going out for a biopsy anyway. Came home and had a nice lunch of a bowl of tomato soup and toast on the back porch. I spent the afternoon reading on our bed. Tried not to fall asleep. Dinner was chicken and broccoli after which we watched Undercover Boss which featured the CEO of Squaw Valley Ski resort. I skipped Ballroom tonight because I didn't think I could make it through more than one or two dances even though I seemed to be back to 100%.

Went to Lowes this morning and got rabbit repellent for the areas that are not fenced. Applied the stuff and then worked on installing the shelf in the laundry room that Libbie painted yesterday. It fit amazingly well. My only meals today were shredded wheat for breakfast and beef broth. I started the colon prep tonight. Uggh! Libbie had spaghetti and tomato sauce for dinner while I watched. No meal tonight for me.

I got some good news in that Andrea enlisted Joe Bruns to help with the video. This is going to be interesting!!! I bought some steel posts and pounded them into the ground around the Mondo Grass in front. Next I recycled the garden fence but it was 40 feet short. Went back to Lowes and got a 50 foot roll of fencing but have not installed it yet.
We had a pretty good ballroom session today with Robert. I learned how to do turns in the waltz and also we learned about under arm turns in the swing. Pretty successful. Dinner tonight was another lemon chicken recipe that Libbie found. Very good.

Started the Lyndon Lyons movie but Andrea doesn't want the movies. She said she will pick pictures and audio pieces to goo together. I don't think this is going to work. I'm willing to go along to see how this is going to work. Talked to Joy about Rick's colonoscopy. He's going to the same place I'm going to but on Monday instead of Friday. I picked up some chicken and beef broth at Kroger for my thursday meals. I was thinking that maybe this could be the start of a weight loss regimen? It's a rainy day out so we spent time indoors all day. Dinner was a nice chicken over angel hair pasta that Libbie found on Christa's pinterest board.

The hot tub now works!!!! Hooked up a meter and dynamically calibrated the pressure switch with the VOM. I found the switch sometimes stayed closed after the motor turned off so I turned the adjustment some more so it definitely turned off. It seems to be reliable now!!!! Yes! All seems to be well. Worked on another movie today and finished the Violet Barn as well as part 2 of Bluebird. The Violet Barn movie is 300 megs so uploading may be a problem. It's pretty cold out today. Libbie didn't ship into the Northeast because they are going to have a major snow storm up there. We're supposed to get rain. I updated the website today removing more of the Dandy Pots. We only have three colors of mini Dandy's left and none of the Regular size ones. Dinner was Pesto Pasta with tomato sauce and cheese sprinkled.

Worked on the hot tub on and off today. I can manually turn the pump on then the heater but if I turn the heat up with the pump off the thing goes into a lockout. I'm not sure what is going on. This will need more diagnosis. I also assembled some pics for the Bluebird portion of the tour. This is going to take quite a bit of time.
In order to make more room in the laundry room, Libbie and I went to Lowes and picked up another shelf board. It needs painting before we can proceed.
Dinner was Libbie's super pizza.

We have 6 hours of Parsifal in HD on the schedule for today. This morning I worked on ASSTR, creating a spotlight for the Burglars Part 2 and looking at reworking the web page. We left at 11:30 for the noon start of Parsifal in Crossroads. The Opera was transporting. It ended at 5:50, 6 hours of heavenly music and outstanding singing. I thought the production, even though it was modern, worked well. Of course it helped to have an outstanding cast to sing it. Dinner was the rest of the Meyer chicken with onion, potato and Shiraz. Andrea has been trying to call today for the commercial tour we're working on.

Went out to Labcorp for a 9:25 appt for blood testing. When I got back I mounted Jacks hard drive into one of my aluminum cases. I also tried to disassemble his laptop and diagnose the problem with the battery charging. His laptop won't charge the battery anymore. Best Buy said the power jack was bad. I found it was good but since wires from the jack go to the motherboard I surmised the motherboard circuitry is at fault. In the PM we had to repair one of the shelves on the tower which had sprung a leak. We went to the greenhouse and got some poly which we cut into a 4x8 and lined the shelf before putting down the mats. It seemed to work well. I need to purchase a 4x8 sheet of plywood and some 1x2s to coat another shelf with resin. After a yummy dinner of Meyer lemon chicken we went to the group class at 7:15. We lucked out since we were the only ones who showed up so we essentially had a private lesson with Erica learning a few more steps to the Salsa. I felt good about the lesson but we need some music at home to practice to. We did the dance party afterwards and lasted from 8:00 to 9:15. I'm not sure how long the party goes on. I'm pretty happy with our progress in ballroom techniques to date.